Top Dentists Pool Talents To Examine Jaw Disorder

As many as 75 million people in the United States suffer headaches, blurred vision and other problems because their jaw joint is out of alignment.

But go to five doctors or dentists for help with your temporomandibular joint and you`re likely to get five different opinions about what should be done.

That should not be happening, West Palm Beach dentist Douglas Phillips said Friday.

Phillips and about a dozen other dentists from across the county - all superstars in their field - are meeting this weekend at The Breakers hotel in Palm Beach to set up standards for treating disorders of the jaw`s temporomandibular joint.

The dentists recently set up the American Academy of Head and Neck Pain & TMJ Orthopedics, which they hope will become the official organization for certifying the qualifications of doctors and dentists who treat jaw problems.

Before the TMJ academy was founded, there was no way that patients could be assured they were receiving reliable treatment, said Dr. Owen Rogal, the group`s executive director. ``We want this to have a high level of integrity,`` he said.

Rogal said there are several hundred doctors and dentists in the United States who are qualified to treat TMJ disorder.

TMJ disorder can affect the entire muscular-skeletal system and cause numerous symptoms that include head, neck and ear aches, popping or cracking sounds when the jaw is opened wide, dizziness, numbness in the fingers and ringing in the ears.

Ronald Reagan and Burt Reynolds are among the acknowledged sufferers of TMJ disorder. Most people who suffer whiplash in auto accidents develop the disorder as a result.

Newly developed treatments are effective for more than 90 percent of patients, Phillips said. ``It`s the missing link in treating people`s pain,`` he said.

TMJ disorder was first recognized as a medical problem about 50 years ago, but it has been only in the past decade when high-tech X-ray equipment became available that doctors have diagnosed and treated the problem consistently with success.

``The new technology has uncovered what was really happening,`` Phillips said. ``It was the opposite of what we were taught in dental school almost as a religion.``

Before X-ray studies showed how the jaw joint moved in people with TMJ disorder, dentists had been told it was necessary to shift patients` jaws back toward their neck in order to correct their bite, Phillips said.

The correct treatment, he said, is to move the jaw forward to relieve pressure on the joint and muscles.

Phillips and other dentists give patients a mouthpiece to wear on their lower back teeth that repositions the jaw. Jaw muscles that have become tight from years of strain are relaxed through massage and stimulation with electrical impulses.

Some patients also require orthodontia to accommodate their teeth to the jaw`s new position. Surgery is needed in few cases.